Lost and Found Photo Project
By todd
12 July 2007
"Where did you get this?" is the first thing Rufus asked me after meeting him on top of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee to return a fourteen-pound family photo album that belonged to his family. Rufus, a dapper, elderly man, sat with his son and looked at the album I returned to them. Just across the parking lot in adjoining nursing home, Rufus's wife, Rita, lived with Alzheimer's. Ironically, it was Rita who had written the many witty captions beneath the photos. These captions assisted in bringing context and color to the photographs within.
I audio recorded our meeting. During our talk Rufus's son said he believed the photographs would help his daughters get to know their grandmother who they never knew prior to her memory loss. He also talked of scanning the photographs "to make some kind of an archive that I can keep around for a long time" so that a digital copy might be created to outlast its leather and paper materiality. Will digital photos last longer?
Now I'm writing a dissertation about lost and found photos. I'm collecting stories via an online voice mail and email. I'd love for people to visit and call in or email a story. www.lostandfoundphotos.org
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